Grendon, Warwickshire

Grendon, Warwickshire is technically one, but logically two small villages situated three miles west of Atherstone and five miles east of Tamworth. (gbmapping|SP274994.)

Grendon consists of two parts: the old village (locally known as Old Grendon) and a much larger and newer village situated off Watling Street, which connects Atherstone and Tamworth.

Old Grendon

The old village of Grendon lies on the north-western tip of Warwickshire, divided from Leicestershire by a small stream and by the River Anker.

Grendon is mentioned in the Domesday Book:

"Henry de Ferrers holds Catmore and five and a half hides in Grendon and Turstin holds of him. There is land for 16 ploughs. There are 24 and sixteen with eight ploughs. There is a mill rendering 5 shillings and 36 acres of meadow, woodland - one and a half leagues long and one league broad. It was and is worth 40 shillings. Siward Barn held it.""Domesday Book: A Complete Transliteration". London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.663]

Grendon Hall was demolished in 1933. However, there are several structures of age which remain, most notably the bridge over the River Anker, which in its current form dates back to 1633. The old servants' quarters is now a residential property and several old barns and stable buildings have also been converted into residential properties.

It is rumoured that the houses located on Farm Lane, originally to house farmworkers of Grendon Farm, were built on foundations created from the rubble produced in the demolition of Grendon Hall.

In the woods off Farm Lane can be found a well-preserved underground ice house, which would have been used as a place to store ice (probably dragged from the nearby River Anker during the winter months) to serve the manor house's rudimentary refrigeration needs. This structure is of red brick, with a domed ceiling and is covered by a thin layer of earth. Ice would have been insulated with straw and if the ice was in large enough quantity it would have kept until the following winter.

There are several other mounds of brick and earth in these woods suggesting other structures once existed.

Parts of All Saints Church date back to the 1100s, but the tower is a much later addition from 1845. The churchyard has several graves dating back to the 1600s and possibly older, but due to corrosion on some of the graves this is difficult to verify.

New Grendon (Grendon Common)

New Grendon (or Grendon Common as it is referred to on some maps) and Old Grendon are separated by a distance of two miles and by the hamlet of Bradley Green. New Grendon was spawned from the mine that once existed in Baddesley Ensor, and in fact New Grendon runs right into the village of Baddesley Ensor.

Seven men from Grendon were among the 32 killed in the 1882 explosion at Baddesley Pit. Some of these men are buried in the graveyard of All Saints Church.

References

ources

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42659 Grendon, from British History Online, accessed 29.1.07]